The Family Trade #4 Review

Writers: Justin Jordan, Nikki Ryan / Artist: Morgan Beem / Image Comics “Tiny hands” jokes and all, the Trump-esque villain in The Family Trade finally captures Jessa after her first significant hand-to-hand battle with his minions. Until this point, Jessa’s collisions with danger typically resulted in minimal fight and maximal flight, but this time she’s cornered and does what we all hoped she’d eventually do: square up. The success here is her swagger, knowing that she’s going down but willing to scrap anyway, odds be damned. That’s the stuff heroes are made of, and it’s the most endeared we’ve been towards Jessa in a short while. The battle is fast paced, much like the rest of this issue that accelerates our plot in a quick, determined direction.

Mr. Berghardt wants “the book,” but is shown to be the dumb, braggadocios leader type who is bolstered by smarter subordinates who share his evil but willfully fall in line to his bluster. When confronted by him, Jessa isn’t afraid, but rather goes through her characteristic inner-planning on how she’ll get out of yet another bleak situation so she can figure out the rest later. Meanwhile, on the Family’s side, Jessa’s big boss is beginning to understand the situation after being puzzled by Ri’s riddles — a part of the story that is somewhat strange, if not altogether unnecessary. If Ri is meant to be the charming sidekick, the woman in the chair, she may need clearer motivations to keep her errant charms more focused and releva…